Ambrosia (Nectar Trilogy, Book 2) (30 page)

He swung me around in a giant hug, making me squeal. “Athena! I’m so proud. You look all grown up. Look at you. Someone take our picture!” He called out to the rest of our group and Rose hurried over with her camera. Susie, my social worker, eyed my dad warily.

I knew she’d lost patience with him over the years.  Getting me to agree to be a ward of the courts made her life so much easier because she didn’t have to continually try to reach him to find out what was what with him, to get him involved in decisions that needed to be made, and so forth.  When it’d finally happened and he lost his parental rights it had been 11 months since he’d made contact.  He always managed to miss birthdays.

It hurt that he could go that length of time without checking on me, leaving others to raise me. It hurt but I wasn’t the sort to start laying blame aloud. I always just thought of him as broken.

He’d found her dead in the bathtub with slit wrists one day. It was a day when I was supposed to have been picked up from school late after a field trip that required parents to pick up the kids because it got us back after 7:00 at night. That night was a long one and I’d sat in the principal’s office for hours and hours while they tried to find someone to pick me up. The principal had been huffy and snippy, too, clearly with plans for the evening that had to be cancelled due to this poor little neglected girl who hadn’t been picked up from school.

Finally my Aunt Carol had come along and brought me to her home. She hadn’t told me about my Mom. She let me overhear her on the phone telling someone else that she was stuck watching me for the evening because my father was a wreck, mourning his dead wife who’d killed herself. What a way for me to find out. She was a witch, my Dad’s sister.

She hadn’t bothered with me for all these years, just wrote me off. Mom hadn’t had any family step up either.  I heard she had an older brother but it seemed she was a bit of a black sheep with her family or something, too. I really had no idea. No one sought me out after she died.

I may not have had siblings by blood but there were many foster kids I’d shared homes and rooms with that I thought of as family and would’ve gladly been an auntie to their kids if I was needed.

So, here Dad was, all smiles for the camera, looking well-fed, well-groomed, and yet there was a weird aura about him, something in his eyes, a nervousness in his laugh. He seemed off, like there was something shifty going on. He kept checking his phone and looking around suspiciously.  When everyone had gotten their fill of camera flashes in their eyes Rose tried to corral everyone so we could go back to her house where a big buffet and gifts were waiting.

“Please join us, Gregory,” she said to my Dad.

“I’d love to!” he beamed, “Tia, ride with me. We can catch up on the way back.”

I nodded, feeling like something was way off. Did he have something to tell me? I was happy to see him. It’d been ages since I’d seen him, but something was off, I could just feel it.

He had a decent enough car, surprisingly. We drove through a coffee shop drive-thru for Dad to get a coffee and me to get an iced cappuccino on our way and then we parked so Dad could get out and have a cigarette first, knowing I wouldn’t want him smoking in the car with me.

“Thanks so much for coming, Dad.”

“Like I’d miss it!” He gave me an ‘Are you kidding’ look. As if he hadn’t missed other milestones, like my first communion, my confirmation, school plays, every single birthday since my 10
th
, and so forth.

“What’s new, then? You working?” I asked.

He nodded, “Yeah, I’ve been working at an auto parts place over on Dufferin Street for about 7 months.  I do parts counter, a few minor repairs. Got a nice apartment. Got myself a nice girlfriend, too. You’ll like her. Sadie. She’s a schoolteacher. Teaches kindergarten. This is her car.”

“Really? That’s awesome.” It’d been the longest he’d held down a job for ages and this was the first relationship he’d ever told me about. He knew what was going on with me already; I’d filled him in with my Facebook message where I’d invited him to come to the grad ceremony.

“Something off, though, Dad? You seem stressed.”

He nodded quickly and lifted the lid off his coffee and took a sip, “Yeah, we need to talk.”

I frowned, “Okay?”

He sat down on a picnic table outside the coffee shop and picked at an imaginary thread on his suit pants, “I’m in some trouble. Chickens coming home to roost, sorta thing.”

My heart lurched, “What kind of trouble?”

He let out a heavy sigh, “I have old debts from when I was gambling. I haven’t gambled in a long time, Tia. I go to a support group. The debt was sold to someone high up in organized crime, someone who hates my guts and has a vendetta from years back. He’s decided to make life --- difficult.”

I nodded, urging him to continue, feeling dread spread through my gut.

“I need to figure this out, find a way to get them paid. They’ve already given me an extension but they want a marker. I just need a few days to sort this out. I was hoping you could help me.”

“How? How could I help you?” I didn’t have any money. Well, $248 in my savings account from my job at the ice cream parlor but that was it.

“You need to be my marker.” He said, resigned.

“Your what?”

“Yeah. I know it’s not ideal but I have a plan to clear it up and then there won’t be anything else. This is the last loose end from my old life, Tia. I’m really sorry to drag you into this but I have no choice.”

“Dad…” I began.

I noticed a black SUV pull in beside us. The passenger window rolled down and a shady-looking guy in the passenger side wearing dark sunglasses was eyeing us.

“Tia, it’s just for a few days. I have a plan, I…” He glanced over his shoulder and then his shoulders slumped.

“Dad, you can’t expect me to…who are these people? What on earth have you gotten yourself into?”

Dad’s face took on a look of desperation, “Sweet pea, I’m sorry. I’ve been such a fuck up.”

He hadn’t called me that since I was little, since before Mom died.

“You need to go with these guys. Trust me. I’ll make this better. It’ll be better.”

“It’s my high school fucking graduation!” I shrieked, looking over to the SUV. Was this them?

Dad blanched. I’ve never before sworn at him, never raised my voice at him. I’ve always treated him like he’s fragile. The front passenger and rear passenger doors of the black SUV opened and two big burly guys in suits looked out.

“Problem, O’Connor?” the burly guy from the back seat asked in a gravelly voice.

“Naw, no. Not at all. Not at all. We just need one minute.” Dad was like a stuttering fool, ”Tia, please.” His eyes plead with me.

“Dad…” I folded my arms. I could not believe he came to my grad to set me up to be his marker. That it was the only reason he came!

Burly guy from the front seat lifted his shades off, “We need to go, O’Connor.”

I took a step back as the two of them got out, leaving their doors opened, revealing a big scary looking black dude in the back and a younger blond pissed-off looking but hot guy in a suit in the driver’s seat.

Dad leaned forward and took my hands in his and his face had a look of desperation that made my scalp prickle, “They’ll kill me,” he whispered.

What the ---? What would make him use me as a marker? Did he think they wouldn’t kill
me
? Did he think they wouldn’t hurt me? How much money did he owe these guys and how would he even pay them off?

He’d let me down countless times. In the early days of foster care he’d promise that his life was almost together enough to gain custody back. He’d promise to take me places, buy me things --- I never needed or wanted things but he always tossed promises around and he never ever kept them. Why would I believe him now?  Why would he put me at risk, make this even an option?

“Just hang tight. They’ll keep you comfortably in a luxury hotel suite or something like that. You’ll be fine. Look at it like a little getaway.”

I tilted my head at my dad, dumbfounded. This couldn’t be real. Back at Rose and Cal’s, they were waiting for me. There was a big beautiful cake congratulating me, Mia, and Bethany for all graduating. Ruby, her brother Connor, the other girls, and everyone’s friends and relatives were all there. There was a table filled with everyone’s favorite foods. There were graduation gifts.  Tonight there was a dance and all my friends would be there.  He was ruining this, a pivotal day that I’d worked so hard for. I was a nearly straight A student. I was on the motherfucking honor roll. I’d beaten the odds despite my screwed up childhood with a loser father and a mom lost to suicide. I didn’t deserve this. Something like a combination of pain and rage rose in me.

“Athena, sweet pea; trust me.” His eyes implored me.

“How much do you owe? Do you even have a way to pay them back?”

He nodded, “It’s not out of my reach, and I have a plan.”

“It must be pretty bad for them to want human collateral, Dad! What’ll they do to me if you don’t pay?”

He put his hands on my shoulders and said, “I just need you to trust me.”

I held my breath.  Burly man #1 and burly man #2 seemed like they were staring me down from behind their Men-In-Black sunglasses.

I was about to open my mouth to say No, no way but then the hot blond guy came out of the vehicle and rounded it. He strode to the passenger side where this standoff was happening and took my elbow and ushered me into the SUV, his mouth in a tight line. Burly guy #2 opened the back door. It happened so fast that I was in the vehicle before I had a chance to protest.

“In!” Blond hot guy was dressed like Mr. GQ and he was angry. He blurted at the goons, “For fuck sakes,” then he gave Dad a chilling death stare. Before I had a chance to react, angry hot guy got back in the driver’s seat. Then we were pulling away from my Dad who was standing there with his hands in his pockets watching the SUV pull away.

I was sandwiched in between backseat burly guy #2 and the big scary-looking black dude. I glanced over my shoulder out the window to see my Dad take a sip of his coffee and dial a number on his phone.  Backseat burly guy passed the big black burly guy on the other side of me my seatbelt and he fastened it for me.

I frowned.  Dad had looked so flippant, so nonchalant as he dialed that number and sipped his coffee. What on earth? I was so flabbergasted I couldn’t even think straight. Half an hour ago I was graduating from high school. Now I was some kind of marker for my father’s gambling debt. Now I was in an SUV with a bunch of scary looking men heading, where? I was trembling.

No one was saying anything. No one was even looking at me. The blond guy was driving and radiating this pissed off vibe and there was some kind of sports event on the radio. I gulped hard and just stared straight ahead, saying a silent prayer.

Tommy

It’d been a couple of weeks since Pop had told me about Tia O’Connor. A long couple of weeks. I’d given the matter thought, like I’d promised him. In fact, I thought about it more than I’d care to admit because the more thought I gave it, the more it made sense. Getting married meant getting handed the keys to all of it. It meant I wouldn’t be second guessed, it meant I’d be in total control.

The idea of owning a woman did things to me. I couldn’t deny the fact that I’d been thinking about the fact that in addition to being in control of the business, I’d be in control of her. Owning this girl, having her available for my every whim, it was stirring something in me. And did I have whims.

Something about the idea of a girl who was mine, a girl who probably hadn’t already had dozens of sexual partners… it appealed to me on a deep level, a level so deep I was having trouble shaking what felt like cravings; the things I was imagining doing to her.  Naw, I wasn’t deprived but I certainly
was
depraved.

I’d dreamt about her almost every night since seeing her picture. Filthy dreams. I woke up every night a few times as a rule, anyway, but since seeing her picture I’d woken up sweaty, with a hard-on, after delicious dreams of her across my knee getting spanked and fingered, dreams of her tied to my headboard, dreams of her on her knees in front of me, taking my cock into that gorgeous mouth with her hands tied behind her back with one of my belts.

It got even worse after I managed to gather intel about her because in addition to the way she looked, she had other qualities I liked. I decided to check out the goods myself, in person, because I put one of my men on detail to watch her and report her activities and after a week he came to me with a report and some photos and I was ready to get this going.

I’d probably never before defined what my ‘type’ was but I now knew. She had a smokin’ hot body and though she was younger than I’d normally go for she didn’t look 19. I knew where she lived, where she worked, where she spent her time, who her friends were, and I knew what sort of person she was.

My man had taken candid photos of her at school, at play, in the pool in her foster parents’ back yard, in a barely there string bikini.  He’d been watching her, how she interacted with others. She wasn’t hard to read at all. She was quite the open book.

My cock twitched at the thought of her in that tiny bikini. Her silky chestnut shampoo commercial hair fell ¾ of the way down her back with bangs that swept gently across her forehead and I could imagine wrapping the long length of her hair around my fist and pulling her head toward my cock.  I imagined taking handfuls of it while I did her from behind.